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London Midland Ticket Office Changes

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Old Hill Bank

Old Hill Bank

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We can all talk about jobs here but what about the passenger?

Little has been said about supervision of lifts at stations!

e.g. will the lifts at SGB be locked off, will the lift at Duddeston become redundant
 
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CliveJones

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Old Hill Bank said:
We can all talk about jobs here but what about the passenger?

Little has been said about supervision of lifts at stations!

e.g. will the lifts at SGB be locked off, will the lift at Duddeston become redundant
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Its strange. I have heard no mention of this from the union.

How do stations cope down south where booking office closures are the norm?
 
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RobShipway

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People here down south end up getting their tickets from the Ticket machines provided were there is no ticket office.

With regards to getting from one platform to another, there is generally ground access to both platforms in most stations I have seen with no ticket office so you make sure you can round to the area where the platform can be accessed to save you having to go ovefr the bridge. Access at ground level needs to be given due to allowing for disabled access.

Having relatives in the West Midlands, I am not sure what will happen with Duddeston as from memory there is only one way to access both platforms unlike say Chester Road, Erdington or Wylde Green stations were there is access to both platforms due to the line going over a bridge to cross a road before either station.

For instance the station I live nearby is Martins Heron station which is open as follows:

Monday-Friday 05:55-13:10
Saturday 07:25-16:55
Sunday 09:00-14:00

The station does have CCTV cameras and as far as I am aware with the station has good lighting and having Tesco supermarket next door which is open most nights until 10pm is also a bonus as the lights from the Tesco car park help to adding to the safety of the station at night.
 
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jon0844

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I've said this before; future franchises are going to need to be drawn up to ensure a minimum level of staffing and security.

Even though most TOCs would accept that staffing has many benefits (from security to encouraging people to travel who may otherwise not want to), the bean counters always see staff as a huge cost that can be done away with.

If it's not a franchise requirement, things will only get worse as more and more TOCs push and push.
 
Mojo

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jonmorris0844 said:
I've said this before; future franchises are going to need to be drawn up to ensure a minimum level of staffing and security.

If it's not a franchise requirement, things will only get worse as more and more TOCs push and push.
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There is a minimum level of station staffing drawn into the franchise agreement! It can only be amended following consultation of various parties and approval from the DfT, which is exactly what LM are trying to do.
 
RPI

RPI

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A TVM at Adderly Park will last about 5 minutes! As for the high footfall at Duddeston, I expect a large proportion is people turning up at New Street with no tickets from other places but paying from the last stop!

LM will live to regret this, I hear that as part of their cuts to other ticket offices Worcester SH will close at 1100, FGW aren't happy with this as presumably they intend to de-staff the platforms for the same period meaning no dispatch staff.
Be better if Worcester SH, FS and the stations to HFD (with the exception of HFD itself) were transferred to FGW as they run quite a few trains along there, and are the only trains that really require dispatching (HST's) although I expect DfT would rather see the hours reduced to nothing!
FGW were intending to increase hours at some stations before the "credit crunch" but the plans were shelved.
 
WL113

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Passengers will not use credit card ticket machines due to the obvious risk of fraud. De-staffing stations will lead to a vast increase in vandalism. Passenger safety will thus be compromised, as well as the saftety of staff.
 
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jon0844

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If people don't use cards, they're even less likely to want to use cash - given the problems with coin validators rejecting coins and note readers failing on the same basis. That and the fact that the cash boxes will be broken into.
 
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87015

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jonmorris0844 said:
If people don't use cards, they're even less likely to want to use cash - given the problems with coin validators rejecting coins and note readers failing on the same basis. That and the fact that the cash boxes will be broken into.
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LM don't give the option to pay in cash anyway.
A few of the LM machines are among many TOC ones to have been scammed recently in the home counties, don't think they've caught the gang yet either, or they haven't come out all gung ho about it if they have like they did with the Wickford cable robbers...

Won't be any trains to buy tickets for this weekend anyway by the looks of it!!
 
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jon0844

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Really? If they have card only machines then I would not consider them valid ticket issuing facilities. We can ALL use cash, but not everyone has a card (or even a bank account). They can't make people get a prepaid credit card, and what about children too young to have any card?
 
RPI

RPI

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a lot of TOC's have set their TVM's at certain "lively" locations to card only in order to reduce the amount of ram raiding to get the cash out, in such circumstances then PF's can't be enforced (unless there is an open ticket office aswell), although LM still have PERTIS machines which tend to be more hardy and less likely to be ram raided, good luck to anyone wanting to rob 50 quids worth of 5p's from one lol!
 
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island

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PERTIS machines are underrated in my opinion. Although I suppose the ticket office or guard who has to exchange them has to write up the back of the permit with all sorts of details that nobody cares about.

I do think the concept of having someone with an Avantix "staff" a station for peak hours is worth considering. It's a better option than having it completely unstaffed, and I know SET do it in some of their outstations.
 
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jon0844

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Permit to travel tickets should be available, and monitored so you can compare the permits issued with the full tickets sold after.

If a million permits are issued, but only one is ever 'upgraded' to a full ticket you know you have a problem.
 
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island

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jonmorris0844 said:
If a million permits are issued, but only one is ever 'upgraded' to a full ticket you know you have a problem.
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Well the last time I used a permit to travel (for a single journey) I went into the ticket office at my (ungated) destination, handed in the permit and asked for my ticket, the ticket clerk looked dumbfounded that I had bothered, threw the permit in the bin, and waved me away!
 
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lm321412

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Just a farce of a TOC, WHO SAID THEY WERE GOING TO BE BETTER THAN CT!?

They cannot even get the staff to provide the services, leaving many people stranded on Sunday.

Coventry - Nuneaton hasnt had a proper train service since January

The TVMs will just get vandalised, won't work and just will prompt many more people to use the car instead of the train.


Absolute joke. (Note this is not aimed at any LM staff, its aimed at your management and Govia)
 
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Seacook

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When the Midland Metro opened there were ticket machines at all stops and the trams were driver-only with hardly any RPIs, Within months alnost all of the ticket machines had been vandalised and conductors were introduced on all services.

Replacing station staff with machines in the same towns is asking for trouble.
 
TomJ93

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Watching central tonight yesterday the main argument was not everybody can use the TVMs - why not just say you can buy on board?
 
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jd

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TomJ93 said:
Watching central tonight yesterday the main argument was not everybody can use the TVMs - why not just say you can buy on board?
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Central are idiots. Not specifically about LM, just generally.

Anyway, you can't buy on board because the stops are generally no more than two or three mins apart, and on most trains LM operate, there are only door controls in the cabs, so if the guard goes off issuing tickets, he gets one, maybe two done, before he has to head back to the back of the train. If he gets held up for whatever reason, he might not be back in the cab by the time the train gets to the station, so the train will be delayed waiting for him. If the train is standing room only, which they often are in rush hour, he can't get through at all.
 
RPI

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Seacook said:
When the Midland Metro opened there were ticket machines at all stops and the trams were driver-only with hardly any RPIs, Within months alnost all of the ticket machines had been vandalised and conductors were introduced on all services.

Replacing station staff with machines in the same towns is asking for trouble.
Click to expand...

I was led to believe that the original machines put on the midland metro werent waterproof and hence were crocked before the trams even started running?
 
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